Rick Scott Blames Massive Medicare Fraud On Inability To Understand Regulation

Rick Scott, the Republican candidate in Florida's gubernatorial race, has long shied away from his role in a Medicare fraud case involving Columbia/HCA, a health care company he started and once led.  To recap:

Columbia/HCA pled guilty to 14 felony counts.  Federal investigators found that Medicare had been charged for services not provided to patients, Christmas parties had been logged as patient care, and even found documents "stamped with warnings that they should not be disclosed to Medicare auditors." 

The company ultimately paid a $1.7 billion fine and Scott was forced out in disgrace.  Since then, Scott has absolved himself of any responsibility in the case.  Last May, for instance, when Scott was leading a crusade against health care reform, he told Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly:

SCOTT: Right, well first as you know, no one ever accused me of doing anything wrong.  And if you go back to 1995 basically there was a significant extension of investigations of the health care industry and so most companies have all paid fines including some great not-for-profit hospitals, great teaching hospitals, and so we feel, I feel very good about what we accomplished and of course no one ever accused me of doing anything wrong.

Today, Scott the politician, is singing an entirely different tune.  Appearing again on Fox, he told Kelly:

SCOTT: What we should have done better is make sure we understood all the regulation and complied with them.  Now, what I tell people is that when you're the president or CEO of a company, you take responsibility and I do and I learned a lot of lessons.  But that's the difference.  When I'm governor, if something goes wrong, I hope it doesn't, I'll take responsibility.

Even when Scott claims to "take responsibility" for the fraud, he still continues to absolve himself or even the company of any willful wrongdoing.  Instead, he blames the entire incident on Columbia/HCA's unfamiliarity with federal regulation.

The Wonk Room's Igor Volsky has more on Scott's new approach to discussing his shady past.